Mega-rockin’

Metal heroes Chthonic and Japanese electro rock group The Telephones
perform at this weekend’s Megaport Music Festival in Kaohsiung

Chthonic.

Photo Courtesy of The Wall

Need a crash course on Taiwan’s best indie rock bands? The Megaport Music Festival (大港開唱) has got it covered this weekend.

The annual event, which takes place tomorrow and Sunday at Kaohsiung Harbor’s Pier 2 Art District (高雄駁二藝術特區), has a lineup of 46 bands that features the nation’s cream-of-the-crop indie artists, as well as several acts from Japan.

Organizers say the outdoor festival saw 15,000 visitors last year, and, with a few mainstream pop acts scheduled to appear, this edition should be no different. Sodagreen (蘇打綠) headlines the main stage tomorrow night, and celebrity model and singer Amber An (安心亞) performs a set of techno-pop tomorrow.

Taipei live music venue The Wall (這牆) started Megaport in 2006 to encourage and develop a live music scene outside of the capital. Beloved pop-punks Fire Ex (滅火器), who play on Sunday, are a hometown favorite, and the festival offers a stage to up-and-coming bands such as the punk outfit The Locals (草地人), also from Kaohsiung, and Taichung hardcore metal band Flesh Juicer (血肉果汁機).

Megaport, which has bands playing on three outdoor stages and one indoor stage, is also putting on activities that are free to the public, including a skateboarding contest and a market selling arts and crafts and food.

One new addition to this year’s event is the NGO Village, a set of booths run by representatives from organizations that include Greenpeace and Amnesty International. There will also be booths manned by aid groups helping victims of the March 11 earthquake and tsunami that devastated Japan last year, the first anniversary of which falls on Sunday.

Admission: NT$1,000 for a single-day pass, NT$1,600 for a two-day pass (advance tickets are NT$800 for a single-day pass and NT$1,400 for a two-day pass, available through end of today). Tickets can be purchased at 7-Eleven ibon kiosks, books.com.tw, or indievox.com

On the Net: www.megaport.com.tw

Getting there: Pier 2 Art District is located near Kaohsiung MRT’s Yanchengpu Station (鹽埕埔站)

A full schedule for the festival can be viewed at www.megaport.com.tw.

Megaport 2012 — performers to catch

Omnipotent Youth Society (萬能青年旅店)

Artsy folk/blues rock band from China’s Hebei Province

Tomorrow, 1:50pm, Sea Dragon King Stage (海龍王舞台)

Enno Cheng (鄭宜農)

Indie-folk songstress and film actress with a pristine voice

Tomorrow, 5:50pm, Kamomai Stage (卡魔麥舞台)

Lin Sheng-xiang (林生祥)

Hakka folk singer and highly admired songwriter among many Taiwanese indie musicians for his grassroots ethos

Tomorrow, 7pm, Kamomai Stage (卡魔麥舞台)

The Novembers

High-energy Japanese alt-rock band that balances heavy guitars and pop smoothness